UFC heavyweight champ Junior dos Santos signs with NIKE

UFC heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos has been signed by Nike according to the fighter’s official Facebook page:

“The UFC heavyweight champion will rise to the Octagon to defend his title on December 29 in Las Vegas, wearing Nike, his new sponsor. The company confirmed on Monday that the Brazilian is his newest hired. The agreement between Gypsy and sporting goods company was started when he signed for Corinthians, which is also sponsored by Nike, to make the club Paulista part of his preparation for the fight against Cain Velasquez.”

“The Junior Cigano is a top athlete and have him on the team Nike is an honor. A top athlete is never satisfied. He always wants more: more wins, more titles, better products. Such is the power that moves the brand,” said Louis Alexander, director of sports marketing for Nike in Brazil, in a statement.

“With the new contract, Junior Cigano equals the other two champions Anderson Silva, the first MMA fighter brand, and Jon Jones, the biggest name in sport in the U.S., also have agreements with most sporting goods company in the world. Nike did not disclose the contract with the Brazilian will be restricted to the national market or if it also involves promotional activities outside Brazil.”

This is pretty big for JDS in that he now has the backing of one of the most lucrative companies in the world. However, since it’s not clear if the deal reaches globally, I’m don’t think you can say JDS’ deal is equal to Jon Jones and Anderson Silva. Nevertheless, you have to start somewhere, and should JDS continue to run through the competition he’ll have leverage to command more in terms of lucrative deals.

Junior dos Santos will fight Cain Velasquez for the second time on December 29th at UFC 155. It’ll be just over one year since the two first fought with dos Santos crushing Velasquez via TKO in just over one minute at the UFC on FOX 1 event to become the undisputed UFC heavyweight champion.